How to Count Calories
Calorie counting is a way to monitor your calorie intake, usually with the goal of increasing, decreasing or even maintaining your weight.
What Are Calories?
A calorie is a unit of measurement used to inform you of how much energy a particular food or drink provides your body. Hence, your body needs calories to function all the time every day. The calories in the food you eat give you energy, carbohydrates, nutrients and fat that serve as fuel to keep our bodies going.
Junk food and carbonated drinks like soda carry calories that are labeled as “empty calories” but this simply means that they do not carry anything of nutritional value.
Taking in more calories than what your body needs and burns leads to energy buildup that leads to excess weight. In short, extra unused calories are converted to fat. Conversely, taking a sharp deduced number of calories can lead to a slower metabolism and consequently, ill health.
How Do I Count Calories?
Before you start your counting calories, you should first find out how many calories your body needs to sustain itself on a daily basis. Children, adolescents and teenagers are usually not prescribed to count calories or to have controlled intake of food and drink. You should first consult a pediatrician for the proper way to reduce your child’s weight.
The average American needs 2,000 calories a day to maintain their weight. For a more specific number, you must consider your current weight, height, age and sex. This more specific number is called the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), the amount of energy your body needs to function and survive. Here’s how to calculate your BMR for adults:
For Women: 655 + (4.3 x Weight in Pounds) + (4.7 x Height in Inches) - (4.7 x Age in Years)
For Men: 66 + (6.3 x Weight in Pounds) + (12.9 x Height In Inches) - (6.8 x Age In Years)
Calculate the numbers within the brackets first before adding and subtracting for the result. The result is your BMR, the number of calories you need to ingest to maintain your current weight.
How Do I Use This Information?
Once you’ve determined the BMR or the number of calories your body needs to maintain its current weight, you’ll have to make another calculation. Generally, it takes 3,500 calories to gain a pound and it takes the same number to lose a pound.
Take your BMR and if you want to lose weight, subtract 3,500 calories from your BMR. The difference should be the number of calories you must intake to lose weight. Add 3,500 to your BMR if you want to gain weight. Keep in mind that you should do this gradually, meaning not removing 7,000 calories from your diet in one go. The more gradual you are in lessening calories, the more likely the weight will stay off.
Take note of the changes in your weight and once you’ve noticed that you have lost some weight, you can re-calculate your BMR and your recommended calorie intake all over again to adjust accordingly.
Keep in mind that the BMR can only tell you so much. Your calorie needs also depend on other factors such as activity level and metabolic rate. It’s also better if you consult a physician or a nutritionist before undertaking a steady decrease of calorie intake.
How Do I Keep Count of Calories?
Check the nutrition facts in your food packaging; most likely, they will include the number of calories within one pack. Make sure you check how many servings one pack has. For example, if a product has 60 calories per serving and the package has three servings, the calorie count of the whole pack is 180 calories.
For those that do not come with nutrition facts such as produce and raw meat products, there are many websites that provide information on how many calories these food products contain.
Oil used for frying and syrup also add on extra “empty” calories, so keep an eye out on them. Steaming or grilling your food is the best way to cook food without adding more fat-creating substances.
Keep a diary of your food and drink intake, listing each item’s calorie count.